Chapter 166: Are You Stupid?
Chapter 166: Are You Stupid?
“Achoo!”
Cheng Lingling had just walked out the door of the Huiping Street Office when a cold wind suddenly hit her face.
A cold front from Siberia swept into Jiangnan yesterday. The temperature in the Provincial Capital dropped by more than 10 degrees overnight. Even though Cheng Lingling was bundled up in a thick down jacket, the cold made snot run from her nose.
She quickly pulled out a handkerchief to wipe it away, not wanting to ruin her image.
“So cold!”
Peng Jia, who came out after her, hunched his neck and grumbled. “They told us to come out to wait in this freezing wind before they even arrived. The leaders just move their lips, but the ordinary people pay with their lives. Do they even care what the weather’s like?”
“Is the guy wanting to do this charity event out of his mind, picking this time? Seriously, nothing better to do…”
Though Cheng Lingling was a bit annoyed too, she thought Peng Jia’s words were too harsh. “The call said he was almost here. And since he’s doing a charity thing for the community, it’s only right we come out to meet him early.”
Peng Jia snorted, his face full of disbelief.
Cheng Lingling was a fresh graduate, new to the working world. She’d been assigned to the Huiping Street Office after passing the provincial civil service exam.
A proper government worker.
Peng Jia, however, was someone his family pulled strings to get hired as non-permanent staff.
What people called a temporary worker.
No official post, no room for promotion. He got all the tough tasks, and the blame when anything went wrong. And they expected him to be genuinely enthusiastic about his job?
Doing charity and public service? Hmph, he wasn’t here to play nice!
“They’re here! They’re here!”
Just as Peng Jia was silently cursing inside.
Sharp-eyed Cheng Lingling spotted a Ford pickup truck and a Wuling minivan approaching one after the other down the street.
They stopped right in front of the office gate.
The door of the lead Ford pickup opened, and a tall, handsome man stepped out.
Cheng Lingling brightened immediately and went to meet him. “Excuse me, are you Mr. Gao Jing?”
A sudden worry hit her – had she wiped her nose clean?
“Hello,”
Gao Jing shook her hand. “You must be Cheng Lingling?”
“Yes, yes!”
Cheng Lingling grinned so widely her nose almost seemed to bubble. “We just spoke on the phone.”
Gao Jing smiled. “Sorry for the trouble.”
Cheng Lingling shook her head vigorously. “No trouble at all, Mr. Gao. As an entrepreneur, you care about society’s vulnerable…”
She launched into a rapid string of words, full of compliments and praise for Gao Jing.
Peng Jia, standing behind, looked at Gao Jing with envy.
He recognized the sportswear, sneakers, and even the watch Gao Jing wore.
All brands he knew he couldn’t afford.
Rich was one thing.
But this good-looking too?
Damn it!
Cheng Lingling was practically going starry-eyed!
Completely unaware her colleague was about to explode inside, Cheng Lingling apologized. “Normally, our director would be accompanying you, but there’s a district meeting today, so the leaders are all busy there.”
“That’s fine,”
Gao Jing said simply. “No need to bother the leadership over this. Shall we go?”
Cheng Lingling nodded eagerly. “Okay.”
Holding the file folder tightly against her chest, she excitedly followed Gao Jing and got into his pickup truck.
She completely forgot to signal for Peng Jia.
Peng Jia cursed under his breath and hurried to get in too.
His bosses had emphasized this task. Grumbling privately was one thing.
But if he got a complaint? He’d be in big trouble.
“Mr. Gao, the first home is just up ahead,”
Cheng Lingling said from the passenger seat, directing Gao Jing as he drove. “Very close, only a few hundred meters.”
Gao Jing nodded.
Huiping Street belonged to Yuncheng’s Xihe District, part of its old city with a resident population of over 70,000.
The old city of Yuncheng had a saying: “Nobles in the East, Rich in the South, Poor in the West, Strangers in the North.”
The wealthy mostly lived in the eastern and southern parts.
The “West” referred specifically to Xihe District, home to hundreds of thousands of ordinary folk.
Few modern high-rises stood here. Buildings were old and plain. Tube-shaped apartment buildings from the 50s and 60s were everywhere, and illegally built structures were especially common.
With a cramped space, dense population, and messy historical issues, redevelopment was extremely hard.
Though Yuncheng’s economy was strong, its downtown filled with skyscrapers, sports cars common on its streets, and residents’ average income ranked high nationally,
many poor people still lived in this city.
For example, Huiping Street alone had hundreds of recipients of the city’s lowest-income subsidy.
Gao Jing was here under the name of the Yuncheng branch office of the Hong Kong Island Great World Trading Company to bring “warmth” to Huiping Street!
Or, more accurately, to gather faith.
He and Ji Yu had put significant effort into this.
Just coordinating with Huiping Street officials had taken several days.
Without their support and the people list, he couldn’t have done it.
“It’s here.”
Following Cheng Lingling’s directions, the pickup stopped in front of one of these tube-shaped buildings.
Gao Jing opened the car door and got out.
These buildings were older than him. Dark gray, peeling walls told silent stories of time passing. Messy clotheslines and dense tangles of electrical wires made up the darker, hidden face of this busy city.
Five or six similar buildings stood close by.
Originally worker housing from the Provincial Capital Cotton Mill, they still housed many retired employees.
The first home Gao Jing was visiting belonged to such a pensioner.
Loaded in the truck bed were sacks of rice and barrels of cooking oil.
Gao Jing reached in, grabbed one 25kg sack of Northeast rice, and slung it over his left shoulder. He grabbed a second sack and placed it on top of the first.
Holding both securely against his body with his left arm, he then picked up two 5kg barrels of cooking oil!
Cheng Lingling stared, utterly stunned.
Peng Jia, who had just come down too, was confused.
He thought he would be doing the hard work today, but instead, Gao Jing, the boss, was doing it himself.
The two bags of rice weighed a total of 100 jin.
Gao Jing carried them and seemed totally relaxed!
Was he a migrant worker in the past?
It didn’t seem like it at all!
Peng Jia really wanted to say: Are you crazy?
He had seen many fake charity types for fame, but not one who paid and still worked so hard!
Gao Jing said, “Let’s go up now.”
Cheng Lingling snapped back to focus and rushed to say, “Mr. Gao, let Peng Jia and me help you carry it.”
“No need,”
Gao Jing said firmly, “Just help me with the bags in the car.”
Peng Jia swallowed hard and pulled out the burlap sack from the back seat.
It was still quite heavy.
Because Gao Jing was so clear, Cheng Lingling couldn’t say more.
Then he took both of them upstairs.
On the fourth floor, the worker from Huiping Street Office knocked on room 402’s door.
The door was opened by an old man with white hair.
He stared at the visitors in the hallway, puzzled.
“Hello, Uncle Zhang,”
Cheng Lingling said with a smile, “I’m Cheng Lingling from Huiping Street, I called you this morning.”
“Oh!”
The thin old man understood and said, “Hello, hello, come right in!”
Cheng Lingling went in first, Gao Jing followed with the rice bag and oil, then put them on the floor.
The room inside was tiny, getting crowded fast with a few people.
Uncle Zhang looked flustered and said, “Sit down, I’ll get water—I wasn’t ready at all…”
“No need for the trouble,”
Gao Jing said, smiling, “We’re leaving soon.”
Cheng Lingling introduced, “Uncle Zhang, this Mr. Gao is the kind person I told you about.”
“Ah!”
Uncle Zhang realized but still couldn’t believe it, “You brought the things up yourself? All that rice?”
He looked around and asked, “No reporters?”
Uncle Zhang’s family was poor in the neighborhood, and leaders had come before with gifts, but always with reporters and big cameras.
“There are no reporters,”
Cheng Lingling said gently, “Mr. Gao is truly here to do charity.”
Uncle Zhang opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say.
Gao Jing opened the burlap sack Peng Jia was holding and took out an envelope.
Pushing it into Uncle Zhang’s hand, he said, “Uncle Zhang, this is a small gift, hoping it helps you.”
The envelope had ten thousand yuan inside.
Uncle Zhang had lost his job at a cotton mill, his only son died young, and he relied only on his weak and ill wife.
He had some pension money, not covered by aid, but his wife’s medicine and doctor costs were huge every year.
So life was really tough for them.
Uncle Zhang held the thick envelope, his lips moved, and he forced out the words: “Thank you.”
His blurred eyes were filled with thanks.
Gao Jing held his hand and said honestly, “Take good care of your health.”
Right then, Gao Jing felt the Bronze Anchor getting a pure and strong new Power of Faith!